The move comes almost two years after the establishment of the Depositories Act which had said that a grievance against a Sebi order could be challenged before the appellate authority subject to the rules in place.

These rules had, however, not been notified by the government which led to a piquant situation where an investor had no where to go in the event of his appeal being turned down by Sebi.

Courts would not have entertained the plea on the grounds that the specified procedures of appeal had not been complied with, leaving an investor with no recourse at all.

The rules for appeal to central government are laid down for every regulations of Sebi, which enables a party aggrieved by a Sebi order to go before a higher authority. The provisions have been used extensively in case of verdicts based on takeover and insidertrading regulations.

With a sudden pick-up in the activity of the depository with thousands of investors having joined the system, the chances of disputes arising between investors and the regulator have also grown considerably. Once the market shifts entirely to the demat system of trading, the case of disputes arising there could have created severe problems had these rules not been notified by the government.

``This will give investors an additional comfort level as they now have one more authority to go to in case of a grievance. There could have been a spate of procedural problems in the event of disputes had these rules not been notified,'' said a source.

Any investor who is aggrieved by an order of Sebi under the Depositories Act will be allowed to appeal to the appellate authority within 30 days from the date of communication of the Sebi order. If the appeal is made after 30 days, it would have to accompanied by an application supported by an affidavit detailing the cause for not preferring theappeal within the 30 day period. In such an event, the appeal could be admitted within 45 days of the receipt of the Sebi order.